Genres

Visitors Review

marc-366 2012-05-24 13:51:02

He is your Pallbearer

Sartana (played superbly by John Garko) has one of the greatestentrances on screen of all the Spaghetti protagonists. When accused oflooking like a scarecrow, he utters the classic line "I am yourpallbearer" before gunning down all the bandits facing him. A classicmoment, with the black clad Sartana setting the scene perfectly forthis Gothic tinged western.The story itself is a very complicated affair, and one which I'm notcompletely sure I followed from beginning to end (I blame the wineconsumption). In simple terms, the story evolves around a stagecoachrobbery and murder (with the culprits themselves hijacked and massacredby Lasky - played by the ever brilliant William Berger - and his gang).Enter Sartana, in the midst of further double crossing and more doublecrossing. And cue bloodshed aplenty! Sartana combines the gadgetry of Parolini's later Sabata movies, withthe darkness and brutality of Django. There are classic performancesfrom Garko and Berger together with the familiar faces of FernandoSancho and Klaus Kinski.The success of Sartana is clearly demonstrated by the string of sequels(and name-checks) that followed. And rightly so, the character is inequal parts cool, mysterious and deadly. Much like the film. I justwish I understood it better (time to put away the bottle, and rewindthe video perhaps).

bensonmum2 2012-05-23 21:55:55

Nice Spaghetti Western

Nice Spaghetti Western. The story concerns four rival groups out to geta chest full of gold. While the plot is actually almostincomprehensible, it's fun to watch Sartana and others switchallegiances about every five minutes. But the story here is secondaryto the action. The body count is very high with entire gangs beingwiped out by the burst of a Gatling gun. Gianni Garko as Sartana andWilliam Berger as Lasky are just fun to watch. It's not the bestSpaghetti Western I've seen, but I'm glad to finally have a copy.While the movie prominently lists Klaus Kinski in the credits, hisscreen time totals about 10 minutes.

chaosrampant 2012-05-22 18:45:23

Sartana, angel of death!

It is very obvious why Sartana created an avalanche of sequels, onlysecond to Django. Even if it looks like yet another tale about stolengold, Mexican bandits and switching allegiances, Sartana feels (and is)different. Of course seen back in 1968, it must have wowed Europeanaudiences with its bleak cinematography and nihilistic characters.However, 40 years (!) down the line, and it still feels as refreshinglydark and stylish as ever.As in with most spaghettis, the plot is near incomprehensible. It hassomething to do about a stolen shipment of gold and a constantswitching of allegiances, as thief betrays thief to get the gold. But,again as in with most spaghettis, the plot isn't the issue at all.Sartana (1968) is a capsule of pure spaghetti western style. Everythingis kept very minimal here, from the scarce dialogues, to theperennially empty town streets. Yet there's a hellish ambiance toproceedings and the nonsensical plot only adds to its psychotroniccharm. I gave up trying to follow the plot after a while and justimmersed myself in the surreal happenings.Sartana himself is like a crossover between The Man with no Name (thestandard by which every spag antihero is measured) and Django, ablack-clad amoral anti-hero. He's not out there to catch the baddies.He's just out for money and blood. His quirky gadgets often bring tomind the other Parolini character, Sabata, but Gianni Garko's characterplays on a whole other level. There is of course, the occasional comicrelief, in the form of an old gravedigger, but it only confirms thatSartana is indeed a grim western. That same darkness would resurface inClint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter years later, on the other side ofthe pond.Overall, this is a must see for SW afficionados. If you're a fan ofCorbucci's nihilistic side (Django, The Great Silence), Sartana willmake you cream your pants. Dark, stylish, with a streak of Euro horrorrunning through it, Sartana is a criminally forgotten piece ofcelluloid. Watch it and find out.

JohnWelles 2012-05-22 05:01:13

An Insult to the Spaghetti Western Genre.

"If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death" (1968), directed byGianfranco Parolini and starring Gianni Garko, William Berger FernandoSancho, Sidney Chaplin(!) and Klaus Kinski phoning in a cameo role, hasonly one great thing going for it, and that's its ridiculously over thetop title. The rest is a banal Spaghetti Western that has no tensionand no direction.The script, such as it is, has a lot of incident and detail, none ofwhich is interesting, as it is completely convoluted and very hard tocare what happens to whom. Still, the plot is something like this:Sartana (Garko) gets involved with an insurance swindle run by severaldignitaries, who hire a Mexican gang to steal a strong-box, and anAmerican gang, led by Lasky (Berger), to kill the Mexicans.It takes a very long time, too long, to find all this out, and by thatpoint, I ceased to care. Berger is a good actor, one that fits verywell into the greed-fill world of Spaghetti's, but isn't given anythinginteresting to do and is wasted completely. Kinski obviously was doinghis role for the money, which is a shame, as his is, career wise thebest actor in the film. Garko has a good opening line ("I am yourpallbearer."), but not much else, and doesn't have the same magneticpresence as Clint Eastwood or Lee Van Cleef.The director made "Sartana" and other "Circus" Westerns like this.They're called "Circus" Westerns because there is so much jumpingaround and choreographed back-flips that you might be watching akung-fu movie and not a Spaghetti. The sets here aren't so much grandas big, to accommodate all the acrobatics; it has a hefty budget, butthe desert scenes are shot in some quarry. Why? I suspect becauseParolini was more interest in making an action film that just happenedto be set in the West than creating a Western. These types ofSpaghetti's were certainly very popular in their day, and they gave alifeline to an ailing genre a few years later. I just wish the lifelinehad been better. Maybe saying this movie is an insult to the genre istoo strong, but when you see progressive and transcendent SpaghettiWesterns like "Black Jack" and "Once Upon a Time in the West" that weremade in the same year, you realise how lazy this film is.